Hey guys, I'm new to the downtown area and thought I'd post my results.

I'm in a condo. It is on the northeast corner of the building about 20 stories up. The balcony faces mainly east and gives a very small window to the south.

After lurking these forums for awhile, I picked up a CM4221 and put it out on the balcony (not mounted - just sitting on the ground and still blocked out by the balcony windows/railings). I also haven't done any of the modifications to it.

Here is the channel list that I have been able to pick up:

2.1,2,3
4.1
5.1
7.1
9.1
11.1
17.1,2,3
19
23.1
25.1
26.1,2
29.1,2
36.1
41.1
44.1
49.1,2
57.1
64.1
66.1
and a bunch of other duplicate analogs that I have removed from the list.

26.1,2 are very weak and have only come in 2 of the 5 nights. The other weaker channels are 4 7 and 57 but they are steady and dropouts are very occasional (and obviously 57 will improve come summer).

I haven't seen 51 yet. From my location should I expect to pick this up? Maybe by doing some of the mods? I'm not sure if I will be able to fully mount the antenna but obviously getting it up and over the balcony railings would help.

Also the only other channel in the area that I can really think of is channel 3 in Barrie - does anyone think this signal will be strong enough to boom into downtown once the analog transition takes place this summer?

Hi JJMoney,

Great results in your first post here!

Can you fill us in on how crowded or clear your view is toward Buffalo? Is the sky unobstructed from where you are to Buffalo or do you have buildings blocking you?

Thanks for the quick response. As I said the balcony is facing east mostly but it does jut out by about a foot leaving a little space to aim down the side of the building to the south. Again I am not sure about mounting in that position though - that would probably mean mounting it on the balcony railing and I'm not sure if it could be secured there or if it would be a violation of the condo rules. But that would probably yield the best results. Currently as I said it is just sitting on the ground of the balcony aimed at about a 30-35 degree angle to my southmost view.

The view south (south-east) is unobstructed. There are buildings in that direction but they more or less form a corridor that I could aim through - I can see the lake in about a 15-20 degree range when looking out as far south as I can. I could be way off but I feel like this "corridor" is helping and maybe some building bounce is helping funnel the signals towards me since I'm not actually aimed straight at the lake right now and the signals are still getting to me.

I also think there must be some building bounce responsible for CHCH and CTS as I have no sight at all to the west/southwest and I was not expecting to be able to pick these up. They seem to be stable though.

I took a look at my tvfool report and it doesn't look good for 51. The opening I have lines up fairly well with Buffalo but since 51 is broadcasting out of Batavia - a little further to the east - it seems that it would be blocked out by the condo buildings directly east/south-east of me.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d3cf4ba800a2484

If only I'd been about 5 floors higher I'd clear the building in front of me and I'd have a far better shot at 51 (as well as some of the Rochesters). I'm not too bothered by it though - the main Buffalos were the ones I was worried about and they are all pretty stable. And it's still a decent pull of channels for pretty minimal effort.

With all this in mind: is there any advantage to doing some of the cm4221 hacks that I've read about? Since it doesn't seem like there are any additional channels to gain from it I probably won't bother. But from some of you who have some experience with this: how noticeable is the difference? Will I notice a big difference in signal strength?

McCowan and Steeles
on border of Toronto and Markham
Apartment balcony 4th floor
skyline partially blocked by a church.
Channel Master 4221hd
no amp
approx 25-30 feet quality RG6 coax cable
Thomas and Betts snap-n-seal connectors
Antenna aimed at WGRZ

2.1 NBC
2.2 Universal Sports
2.3 Retro TV
4.1 CBS
5.1 CBC
7.1 ABC
9.1 CTV
11.1 CHCH
17.1 PBS HD
17.2 PBS SD
17.3 PBS Think Bright
19.0 TVOntario
23.1 The CW
25.1 Radio-Canada
29.1 Fox
29.2 The Country Network
36.1 CTS
41.1 Global
44.1 Omni2
49.1 My TV Buffalo
49.2 The Cool TV
57.1 City TV
64.1 Omni 1
66.1 Sun TV

Helped another friend discover OTA.

Share the good news everyone! It will secure the future of OTA.

Finally able to post an update on my challenge. After a couple weather delays, my installer returned yesterday for try #2. You may recall, I'm at Yonge and Lawrence, outdoor antenna, probably about 27 ft off the ground and rest of specifics are in various previous posts (starting with #1416) on this thread.

using a compass and TVfool, we re-aimed the already installed 4221HD (with an amp) and were able to see 2-1, 7-1 and 29-1 but they are very poor quality. never saw 4-1. he's replaced the 4221 with a 4228 and we swept from the east looking for buffalo, with same results as before. the signals are clearly there as the tv will autoprogram them sometimes, but not consistently. and when it does find them they are unwatchable (heavily pixellated). installer is stumped.

I haven't talked to the shop owner yet, but wanted to get some ideas put together before i do. here's a few things i've learned.

the position of the mounting brackets on the 4221 allow it to be about 3 feet higher than a 4228 on the same pole. i have a 3 story house beside me, a 4 story school south of me...should i try to get the antenna up higher?

the amp seems to be working properly. the tv does report a stronger signal when it's plugged in. what would symptoms of a defective or super noisy amp be?

similarly, he uses a small stb receiver to tune, and it seems to have better luck pulling in buffalo stations (though still not steady) than my brand new panasonic plasma. could the signal be too strong for the plasma receiver, or is the receiver in the TV bad?

i'm thinking he needs to use a proper signal meter to evaluate the strengths, and not rely on the stb receiver though.

any other ideas?

Not quite joking, we need some posts about "How I concealed a banned 4228 on my condo balcony."

Anybody's guess what forum that would be in!

"How I concealed a banned 4228 on my condo balcony."
Anybody's guess what forum that would be in!

it would be in the forum that u posted it in.

hi guys

i have recently discovered this OTA and within 3 days you can say my life has got "exciting!" lol. I just got married and my wife is big on TV, local TV to be specific. i hate rogers with a passion and started searching and came across this.

anyways. first thing I did was grab a 10 dollar HD indoor rabbit ears with a loop antenna, which got me 5 HD channels (2.1, 5.1, 9.1, 25.1, 57.1) and another 10 analog looking channels.

i then bought a used radio shack antenna used from kijiji which had superb reviews. it appears to be an older model to this >> Antennacraft® HDView360™ Mini-State® Antenna Anyways, connected this indoors and got nothing and i mean nothing. Mine does not have a remote or a receiver, just the UFO dish.

Q1: If someone has experience with this type of an antenna, can you give in your 2 cents?

or,

Q2: I am considering buying another antenna, preferrably outdoors that i can install when it gets warmer outside, but for now can keep indoors. I have read about alot of antennas, 4221, 8 bays, 4 bays, but unsure what to purchase. I am willing to invest as this is well worth it. Can anyone suggest one for my area?

vikas2k I live at Hwy 48 and Hwy 7 area. I have an original cm 4221, chimney mounted with a cm 7778 preamp. I get all the local stations and US stations reliably except for WGRZ, ION and CHCH. WGRZ is known for its problems in this area. ION and CHCH are a long reach from here. I believe a slight twist to my antenna might improve CHCH but the rest of my channels are so good I am reluctant to do this. WGRZ and CHCH come in about 1/2 the time while ION only shows on good tropo days. Hope this helps.

Bman72, cm4221 sounds like the way to go then. thanks for responding btw, i appreciate it. let me know if you need a hand with anything, i would like to return the favor. we are practically neighbours btw.

btw, if you had another chance to redo your setup, would you stick to cm4221 or try another out? you said you are getting all local and US channels except a few, how many are you getting? are you pointing towards buffalo or cn tower or between the two?

I would keep my setup. The 30 degree beam allows me to aim between the tower and Buffalo. My neighbour has a 4228 and he doesn't get anymore channels than I do and has some problems with ones I don't. I get 4-1,5-1,7-1 17-1,23-1,29-1,41-1,44-1,49-1,57-1,64-1,66-1. As I said 2-1,11-1 and 51-1 are less reliable.

Hi Everyone,

I am just north of Kingston Rd. near Victoria Park looking for advice.

Thanks

obe67, I found lots of Beaches posts using the Search This Thread tool to the upper right beside Thread Tools. :)

Here is what a TV Fool Report for Kingston & Victoria Park looks like:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d3cf4b8e9a03194

The gap between the Toronto/Hamilton and Buffalo/Batavia transmitters ranges from about 90 to 110 degrees on a compass.

If you want to try a single antenna solution this is my prescription:

Channel Master 4221hd antenna (no hacks)
Channel Master 7778 pre-amp
Direct antenna toward WGRZ (or slightly to the east of it).
RG6 coax cable
Thomas & Betts Snap-n-Seal connector ends (invest $20 in the tools for stripping and crimping).
If you plan to split to multiple TVs, buy a good splitter (not amplified).

This is your best bet for getting everything with one antenna.

This prescription is very reliable at Danforth & Woodbine / Coxwell / Greenwood / Donlands and usually gets every channel including ION when mounted outdoors at roof height without obstructions blocking the sky.

Please report your results here.

All: I am a week into my TV viewing via OTA and loving it. The Superbowl on the Fox Buffalo station was fantastic. I have an Antenna Direct DB8 mounted on a mast above my brick chimney. I am getting the following stations with great signal and clarity:

2.1 NBC
2.2 Universal Sports
2.3 Retro TV
4.1 CBS
5.1 CBC
7.1 ABC
9.1 CTV
17.1 PBS HD
17.2 PBS SD
17.3 PBS Think Bright
23.1 The CW
25.1 Radio-Canada
29.1 Fox
29.2 The Country Network
41.1 Global
44.1 Omni2
49.1 My TV Buffalo
49.2 The Cool TV
57.1 City TV
64.1 Omni 1
66.1 Sun TV

I am wondering why I am not receiving either TVO or CHCH. Any ideas? I also see people receive CTS, but I am not sure what that channel is.

TVO would be great for my youngest daughter. CHCH just for variety of programming.

Thanks.

You may not be getting TVO yet because they are still only broadcasting in analog, so if your tuner only gets ATSC signals, you won't get TVO until they switch to digital broadcasting.

CTS is a religious channel from Hamilton.

Jacrider,

Welcome to the forum.

Congratulations! You should be very happy with your results.

One of your neighbours, bmwalenius, has been having a terrible time getting decent reception.

You are getting all the main channels.

Try punching in channel 19.0 on your remote control and you'll pobably get an analog version of TVO. You might not like the analog, but your kids won't mind. From your location, your antenna is likely directed in such a way that you'll probably get a very good analog picture. Sooner or later, TVOntario will switch from analog to digital -- at the latest on Aug 31, 2011. Either keep checking Digital Home regularly and you'll see us all freak out when TVO goes digital, or else, just re-scan for new channels every month or so. Eventually, TVO will just appear in HD for you.

Try punching in 11.0 and you'll get a watchable analog CHCH. Many people in Toronto can get 11.1 (real channel 18) CHCH in HD but you might need a pre-amp for that. And I am worried that a pre-amp for you might introduce more problems than it solves.

If the pre-amp worked for CHCH, you'd probably also get CTS from Hamilton. If you want to see CTS to decide if it's worth worrying about, punch in channel 36.0 on your remote control to get an analog version. The HD version is on real channel 35.

Congrats and enjoy your OTA!!!

If you really want to try out a pre-amp, you might consider a ground-level indoor installed Kitztech KT-100 VG (must purchase online). It is a low-noise amp. If you buy it and it doesn't help, you could easily sell it here on Digital Home for close the your purchase price. They cost about $50 bucks and they are well-known to be very good performers. Others might recommend another low noise ground level signal booster. I use the Kitz and I'm very happy with it. The key is that whatever amp you decide on should have a specified noise level of somewhere between 0.5dB and 3.0dB. If you find an amp that simply states "low-noise" without providing a spec, steer clear.

All: Thanks for your help.

My main TV has the Channel Master PVR and I just realized it has a digital only tuner. My other TV picks up TVO nicely, albeit in analog. It also seems my HDHomerun is digital only. No worries actually.

I will play around to see if I can get CHCH without changing my setup. Right now, I am very pleased with the results. I seem to be getting most of the content we need, although CHCH seems to carry Sportsline which would be nice.

I likely don't need to worry about CTS.

To bmwalenius, let me know if you are close by and if I can help in anyway. I ended up aiming my antenna just east of south (if I use Yonge Street as a proxy for south) is straight at Buffalo. I have LOS to the CN tower, so I get everything off there as well.

Thanks.

Boy do I envy you, I am trying hard to get the US networks from Buffalo. Usually I get CW23 quite well, along with ABC7 reasonably well and CBS4 somewhat well. Other than CBC the Canadian networks are meaningless to me. I live in the right spot (Lawrence West-Allen) but I am behind trees and have to place any antenna indoors since it is a condo with the usual strict rules. If I position my SBGH just right I can get CHCH but curiously CTS works only with my indoor ZSS. I used to get FOX29 but only with the antenna in the middle of our bedroom, not practical with a newwborn due this spring and a wife who is tolerant thus far with the antenna in our large south bay window. Would love to have the condo replace their non functioning microwave TV antennas which I and others used to get the now defunct LOOK TV, with one or two FM/VHF/UHF antenna(s). Hopefully I can get the SB in 2013 on CBS4. PS you might get more in the summer. Last summer I got ION 51.1-51.3 from Batavia, NY with just my small indoor ZSS quite regularly as well as NBC2 which is one the hardest Buffalo net's to pick up.